NEW YORK – Four Purple Eagles scored in double figures as Niagara fell to conference-leading Iona, 87-64, on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

Sophomore Wesley Myers led Niagara with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting from the field and was 4-for-6 from behind the arc to share game-high honors in 3-pointers. Emile Blackman scored all of his 15 points in the second half, Ramone Snowden netted 13 points and grabbed a team-high nine rebounds, and Karonn Davis chipped in 10 points and dished out a team-best five assists.

Niagara (3-16, 2-8 MAAC) made it 49th appearance at the World's Most Famous Arena - its first since 1997 - and faced Iona (15-6, 8-2 MAAC) for the third time at the Garden. Today's game was the second half of a doubleheader with Duke versus St. John's leading it off as Duke's Mike Krzyzewski became the first NCAA men's basketball head coach to win 1,000 games.

"It's good for our guys," head coach Chris Casey said about playing at MSG. "We have a lot of young guys, so it's good for them. They get thrown into this type of atmosphere and get a feel for it. I think that it's a positive for them."
                                                                                 
Niagara opened the scoring with a Snowden 3-pointer, but Iona answered with a 17-2 run over the next seven minutes. The Purple Eagles used an 11-4 run to pull within 21-16 with 10 minutes left in the half, before the Gaels connected on consecutive 3-pointers to build the lead to 11 points. Iona headed into halftime leading 45-30.

Trailing by 18 points early in the second half, the Purple Eagles used a 13-4 run to cut the deficit to 52-43 with 14:16 remaining. However, NU suffered a four-minute scoring drought which allowed the high-scoring Gaels to score 10 straight points en route to a 17-1 run for a 69-44 lead with 8 minutes left. Iona finished the game with a 50-22 points in the paint advantage and a 16-4 fast break points advantage.

"They played extremely well," Casey said. "They're a very good team – have some very good senior leadership and upperclassmen leadership. We did not play well. I thought we had some chances early on in the first half. We had some open looks that we didn't make. Against a team like that you've got to make open looks early and try to play from in front and we didn't do that."

NU returns to the Gallagher Center for a two-game MAAC homestand beginning on Friday, Jan. 30 against the Marist Red Foxes at 7 p.m. on ESPN3. For ticket information, contact the Niagara Athletic Ticket Office at 716-286-8499.